Bellflower Center and Providence House are part of this year's Holiday Spirit campaign

Joshua Gunter/The Plain DealerJessica Mickey, 8, is flanked by grandmother Sandra Harris, left, and mother Sheila Mickey in her newly painted pink bedroom. The Kinship care program, through Bellflower Center, helped Jessica through family turmoil while her mother battled substance abuse. Her mother, who painted her daughter's room, is working on getting her life back on track.

Her three toddlers were at day care during the incident that upended their lives. That's when, as Cheryl Holley described it, she came home from work and surprised intruders, who attacked her, temporarily blinded her and fled after setting fire to the house on Cleveland's East Side.

"We lost everything," she said.

Her children had an injured mother, no home, no clothes and no food.

With help from the American Red Cross and the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services, Holley turned to Providence House, Ohio's first and only licensed crisis nursery.

The children lived there for three weeks and got new clothing, books, toys and blankets, plus medical attention in a caring atmosphere. Holley was able to visit the West Side facility, participate in its support programs and find links to family assistance while rebuilding their lives.

Without Providence House, "I had nobody reliable to watch my kids," she said. "They were there for me."

Children in crisis

• Three children die from abuse or neglect every day in the United States.

• In Cuyahoga County, there are more than 14,000 investigated reports of child abuse and neglect each year.

• Nearly 3,000 children are in the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services due to parental abuse or neglect.

• On average, 104 children are taken into custody each month.

• More than 85 percent of abusive parents were abused or neglected themselves.

• Prison studies show that 80 percent to 90 percent of all inmates were abused as children.

SOURCE: Bellflower Center

For Sandra Harris, the problems were not material. She took custody of her granddaughter because of the drug and alcohol abuse of the girl's divorcing parents. Now safe and cared for, the 3-year-old was acting out her fears, frustration and anger.

"I just needed someone to talk to," Harris said. "I needed help with counseling, which is a great thing for a child in that situation. But money was tight for me."

Then she learned about the Bellflower Center for Prevention of Child Abuse in University Circle. Christine Spikes, a clinical social worker, began regular visits to the Harris home in Parma, and she maintains the contact five years later.

"It was invaluable," Harris said. Her daughter is now living with her and back in the life of Harris' granddaughter, who has overcome her early trauma and is "the joy of my life."

"No one can do it alone," she said. "I can't say enough for Bellflower Center and how grateful I am."

Her case was not unusual, according to Jay Gardner, the center's director of development: "Children who are living with their grandparents are likely in their care due to some form of abuse, neglect, trauma, substance abuse or their parents' incarceration." He said that besides offering the sort of counseling Harris' granddaughter received, the Kinship Care Home Visiting Program "gives grandparents the opportunity to learn new skills for raising grandchildren in their care and helps them access other community support."

Bellflower Center and Providence House both are part of this year's Holiday Spirit campaign. Both are nonprofit agencies funded mainly by private donors. Both provide unique services to help children when their families are in trouble.

Bellflower Center, started in 1977 as Parents Anonymous of Northeast Ohio, is the area's only organization whose sole mission is preventing and treating child abuse. It offers immediate response service through a 24-hour help line -- 216-229-8800 -- staffed by the center's 23 professionals. Its range of services also include personal safety skills programs for children, abuse recovery and therapy groups for children and adults, parent education programs, teen parent services and counseling.

At Providence House, the focus is on children up to age 5 whose families are in a state of crisis -- "loosely defined as anything that impairs a family's ability to care for children," said social worker and advocacy manager Ashley Kurz.

"We're a gap service meeting needs not met elsewhere. The goal is to prevent abuse and neglect and to preserve families."

As another staffer said, "We take responsibility for children who have no one else to do it."

They have provided family-focused residential care to more than 5,500 infants and children since 1981. Children are referred by more than 25 agencies, including hospitals, drug treatment centers and women's shelters.

"The shelters in Cleveland just aren't built for children," Kurz said.

Medical crisis, homelessness and domestic violence are the top three reasons for referrals, and it is not unusual for police to arrive in the middle of the night with innocent children in need. Five shifts of workers provide 24-hour service.

But residency is temporary. Providence House is not foster care, and parents don't lose guardianship. Its goal, through family education and case management, is to send healthy children home into healed families.

They have been meeting that goal, Kurz said, with a reunification rate of 100 percent.

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